Category Archives: Open Threads

Presidents’ Day is an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, it is still officially called “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government. Traditionally celebrated on February 22—Washington’s actual day of birth—the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While several states still have individual holidays honoring the birthdays of Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other figures, Presidents’ Day is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents past and present.

This is a very eventful week in the USA. Today, Monday, is President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Let’s celebrate the Republican president who kept our Union together and who freed the slaves from bondage.

Senator Grassley has released the memo that was sent to the DOJ and the FBI, referring Christopher Steele for investigation. However, the memo is heavily redacted, which means that We the People will have to wait to see what Senator Grassley knows that we’re not being allowed to know.

Update 2/6/18: This link goes to a less-redacted version of the memo, approved for release today.

The highly anticipated memo documenting potential FISA abuses by the Obama administration’s FBI and DOJ is out. This link goes to the memo itself, with a two-page introductory before the actual memo. If it doesn’t work, there’s another link within this article.

There’s a narrative developing around the Steele Dossier, and it’s not a promising one, from the perspective of those who want and expect truth and transparency. An op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal lays out this narrative, which has been hinted at before. So what’s the new spin?

Why do Peter Strzok and Lisa Page still have jobs in our government? You ought to recognize their names, but in case not, according to Wikipedia: [emphasis added to quotes]

Strzok was the Chief of the Counterespionage Section during the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server. Strzok rose to become the Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division, which is the number two position in that division, and led the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

Last week, we were treated to another typical mainstream media firestorm. This time the controversy concerns whether or not the President used the term shithole to describe certain countries from which he doesn’t believe we need more immigrants. African countries and Haiti were particularly mentioned in the discussion that took place in the White House. Only one person, a very partisan Democrat with a history of lying about what’s said behind closed doors in “private” meetings, alleged that the President used that epithet to describe certain countries.